This Saturday, our National League team headed down to Edinburgh to play their last game of season against CSL Eastern Premier League Champions, Carlton Cricket Club.
Jack won the toss and decided to have a bowl on a wicket with some green on it.
Things started well as Michael and Jamie both struck early on: Jamie getting Watts (6) trapped LBW and Michael getting Pillai (5) caught behind.
Carlton 14-2 off 6 overs. Jamie was unlucky not to be on a hat trick as he had McCann dropped first ball in the cordon.
Drummond and McCann rebuilt the innings and dispatched all bad balls bowled to the boundary. Carlton brought up there 100 after 21 overs, for the loss of only the 2 early wickets. They accelerated quickly after this and reached 143-2 at drinks. They continued to accelerate before Drummond was ran out by a direct-hit wonder throw from Jordan from short fine leg, for a well-made 81.
Carlton 175-3.
McCann fell shortly after for 75 as Brayden had him caught at cover by Ahklaq. After a few tight overs, SDCC looked like they were going to give themselves something reasonable to chase. Gilmour (1) was ran out by Ahklaq and Carlton were 195-5 off 35 over.
This brought ex-SDCC player, and current Carlton Pro Mario Olivier to the crease to join ex Scotland rugby player Hugo Southwell at the crease. As has happened throughout the 2016, an SDCC alumni came in and changed the course of the game completely.
No other words can describe what happened next except to say Olivier and Southwell went mental! They dispatched nearly every ball bowled to the boundary, over the boundary and at times over the hill (including a huge six from Southwell up the hill!)
The partnership between Olivier and Southwell was 195 off 99 balls!! Mental probably does not adequately describe thatOlivier brought up his 100 with a cover drive for 4 and Southwell was left not out on 94*, despite his best efforts to bring up his 100 in the last over! The last five overs yielded a staggering 104 runs.
Carlton finished on a mammoth 388-5 after their allotted 50 overs. At the break, some felt this might have been about 40 runs short…..but they were probably thinking about the England score that was to follow a few days later.
After tea, SDCC headed out to chase down 388 and opened up with the oldest and youngest members of the team, Shaun and Ewan. Shaun and Ewan saw off the new ball pairing of Evans and Olivier. Ewan had played and missed at about 35 of his 41 deliveries at the crease but he stayed in.
Mario Olivier bowled a fantastic spell of 1-19 off his 10 overs. Olivier eventually got Ewan caught and bowled for 9. Ewan and Shaun had provided a good base though as we were 47-1 off 13 after Ewan departed.
Brayden came in and went aggressive from the off, dispatching anything with width away to the boundary. Shaun was going really well and was also punishing the bad balls. Brayden was stumped for 30 and was the first of Cheeky Gosain’s 6 wickets.
Shaun followed soon after for a well-made 48 and then Ahklaq was ran out to leave SDCC 97-4.
Matt and Jack stopped the rot of wickets and kept the runs ticking along before Jack was adjudged LBW to Gosain for 5.
SDCC 127-5 and 389 was looking an awful long way away…
Matt was out for 32, before an explosive 7 from Jordan. SDCC 151-7.
Owen was LBW yet again and then Andrew and Michael fell shortly after as SDCC were bowled out for 163.
Jamie was once again denied another 50 as he finished 1 not out.
SDCC were thoroughly outplayed by the Champions during the day but as a young team where all but 3 players were between the ages of 16-22, there is lot for SDCC to remain positive about for the future.
SDCC send their congratulations to Carlton in becoming the CSL Eastern Premier League champions and wish them all the best their West v East game against Clydesdale next Saturday.
SDCC MoM: Shaun for his 48, he was also our only bowler to go at under 5 an over!
Carlton MoM: Plenty of nominees but it once again goes to an ex-SDCC player Mario Olivier for his terrific 105 not out off only 53 balls and 1-19 off 10 overs.